


A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [16]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: College, Established Relationship, Grief, M/M, Post-Canon, School Shootings, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:48:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27585005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: The missions that tend to hurt more are the ones where they watch innocent people die.Prompt: Shoot the Hostage
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Kudos: 63





	A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and they are as connected as you want them to be so you’re good to just read one and not worry about missing anything.
> 
> Please read responsibly considering the harsh subject material.

They’d been following the lead of a terrorist group planning an attack on a local university. Joe had taken a temporary opening for a professor, Nicky taking one as an assistant to another professor, Nile had gone in as a student, and Andy was following information on the group itself, waiting for any indication of when the attack would happen.

Joe had to admit, being back in a school setting reminded him that he really did enjoy going to school and learning about aspects of the world he wasn’t involved in. It had been a while and Nile’s presence had been making the urge grow.

He’d done stints as a professor numerous times, usually in linguistics as he was this time or art though he tended to avoid history because there were just some things he had too much trouble curbing having experienced for himself working its way into his lesson, no matter what the text said. Nicky was better about teaching history, which he had done before in addition to religious studies and ethics.

Joe had just finished up his class, watching the students file out gradually, paying attention to three in particular that Copley had flagged as likely members of the group. One in particular had more of Joe’s attention, him having caught the young man looking through some reports, articles, and other documents that had nothing to do with linguistics. And his behavior had been setting off all sorts of warning bells in Joe’s mind, him having centuries of honing his ability to read people and know what to look for in people who were willing to hurt others or an ideal. Two more were in the class Nicky was in and Nile was going to multiple classes with a few others that didn’t share any classes with each other.

He waited until the last student left and then pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He didn’t have any messages from Andy or Nile and the one from Nicky was just a picture he’d taken of one of his students trying to subtly cheat off someone else’s test and doing such a poor job and Nicky knew Joe would also find it very amusing.

Joe sent a quick reply but didn’t expect a response since Nicky’s class wouldn’t be done for another hour and they really were responsible about when they timed their contacts.

He grabbed his jacket and slipped it on before grabbing his laptop bag, slinging it across his torso and shifting it so it hung more off his back than his hip, making sure that it was positioned correctly for him to be able to reach the gun tucked into the lower pocket as easily as possible.

He was only carrying one knife on him, tucked into the inside of his belt. He hardly ever had that few weapons concealed on him but he wasn’t dressing as comfortably as he usually did and the difference in style meant sacrificing places to conceal weapons in places that were actually useful to hold a weapon.

Stepping out of the classroom, he headed toward where Nile would be getting out of her own class soon. Then they’d wait for Nicky and head out to meet up with Andy to get any updates that weren’t critical.

Joe was about halfway to Nile’s class when he saw her walking toward him, mixed in easily enough with other students. He stepped to the side of the hall and waited for her to reach him.

“How was class, honey?” he asked with a grin and Nile smacked him on the arm though she was holding back a smile of her own.

“Wanna tell me again why I had to be a student in math? I hate math,” Nile replied back as they stepped back into the flow of people walking, heading for the cafeteria to kill time. “I know I don’t have to actually pass the class but it’s still an hour and a half of _math_.”

“Because Nicky and I aren’t good enough at math to pull off teaching it. We’re only competent enough on that subject up through high school and even then I heard that they changed it so we’d have to go learn the new way first.” If any of them could have handled that, it would have been Booker but he’d never taken on the role of a teacher whenever they took this long approach kind of mission for good reason. “Besides, there wasn’t a position available in that class we could easily worm our way into.”

“Who says you had to come in as teachers? Why couldn’t I be a teacher and you two be students. You know it’s getting more and more common for adults of all ages to be going to college now.”

“We needed the freedom to move around that being a professor allows us. And you’re only visiting, getting a feel for the campus, just another face in the crowd of the class. That way the one’s we’re looking for won’t pay you any attention. Trust us: we’ve done this before.”

They were passing another classroom still in session and Joe glanced into the window in the door, scanning the occupants as was habit for him for centuries, and something nagged at the back of his mind suddenly. He stopped, Nile pausing behind him as well as he took another step closer to the window to try and figure out what exactly had caught his attention so much.

“Something wrong?” Nile asked when he was just looking inside the classroom for a few seconds.

“I’m not sure. I thought I saw something but I don’t know exactly what it was.”

“Want me to call Andy? Make sure she didn’t hear anything?” Joe deeply appreciated that Nile didn’t dismiss him just because he wasn’t certain what he was looking for. She was such a great addition to their team and family.

It was frustrating him because him glancing at the room’s schedule displayed next to the door revealed that it wasn’t a class that any of their potential targets were taking.

He took one more look around the faces of the students, just to make sure and that was when he realized what it was. “Yes, call her. We’ve got two targets in a class they aren’t supposed to be in. I’m going to go in through the auditorium entrance and keep an eye on them. Ask Andy what she wants you to do. And text and call Nicky to watch out for the ones in his class.” The call wasn’t for her to actually talk to him but would let Nicky know that the text was urgent and he would look immediately. She would let it ring twice and then hang up.

Nile already had her phone out and she replied, “Right, I know.”

Thankfully, Nile didn’t seem frustrated by him clarifying something that was common practice for them. He’d just gotten caught up and he reached over and squeezed at her hand briefly to show his appreciation as quickly as possible before he jogged off.

“Be careful,” he heard her say just loud enough that he’d hear and he gave her a quick wave as he headed for the nearest stairs that would bring him to the floor that had all the entrances to the backs of the leveled classrooms like the one he was heading into.

He paused at the right door and took in a calming breath so he wouldn’t gain too much attention from his entrance, easing the door open as casually as he could, a few nearby students looking his way but not the ones he was concerned about, and he made his way to sit in the nearest chair, shifting his bag over to his hip so he wouldn’t block access to his gun.

The professor continued teaching uninterrupted, some sort of biology class but Joe paid it little mind as he kept his focus on the two. They were sitting a few rows apart and while their notebooks were open in front of them, they weren’t taking any notes and didn’t seem to be paying attention to the teacher but seemed to instead be focusing on the students. Not anyone in particular, just scanning everyone close to them.

What they were waiting for didn’t come from inside this room but from somewhere else in the building, some distance away by the sounds of it. But Joe instantly knew the sound of gunshots when he heard them. He allowed the brief relief that came from knowing that none of the shots he heard were coming from high caliber or automatic weapons. Of course the guns weren’t any less lethal but less damage could be done in the time it would take for them to be subdued.

The two were moving to stand and had pulled guns out from their laps. A few students around them saw the action and let out screams, causing most of the students to jump to their feet and scramble away from the two. Unfortunately, that put them between Joe and both the boys as they were within a few levels of Joe so he couldn’t take them out.

They opened fire and Joe felt his heart clench at seeing innocent people dying in front of him, young people who definitely didn’t deserve to go to class and get shot for it.

He cut around behind the line of desks and charged toward where the nearest one was firing, placing himself between the fleeing students and the shooters with his hands out placatingly in a likely pointless attempt to get them to cease firing.

“Stop shooting!” he demanded and his forwardness seemed to at least startle the shooter. Joe wanted to reach for his gun then but he knew that would disrupt the moment and he needed to give the ones left alive every chance to get out. While he knew there were other shooters somewhere in the building, they were certainly in this room and that meant anyone here wasn’t safe. Maybe he could actually see that some people were saved who wouldn’t have been otherwise and that’s what mattered.

The shot that made him stagger to the side came from the other shooter, hitting him in the stomach. He dropped to his knee though he was already drawing his gun and aiming to fire.

He hit the one he’d been staring down twice, once in the arm and then in the opposite shoulder as he fired while still in motion, trying to get to the other shooter before it occurred to him that they were being fired on.

He did get one more shot off into the other shooter, it also hitting him in the arm but he’d fired as well and it hit Joe in the throat, piercing through his windpipe and he instinctively grasped as his throat as he became unable to breathe, blood flowing down into his lungs and he choked to death painfully, hearing more gunshots as he faded.

He revived with a gasp, then he had to roll to the side to cough up and spit out the blood that had gathered in his throat and lungs.

He could still hear gunshots but they were further away. He looked around the room, not seeing either of the shooters. What he did see were the motionless bodies of seven students while two more were crying out in pain and clutching at wounds that either weren’t fatal or just hadn’t killed them yet.

Joe looked at the door briefly, deciding what he should do. He quickly came to the conclusion to try and help the two still alive. After all, Nile, Nicky, and Andy were there to help.

He felt his shirt soaked with blood and figured he looked horrible but he needed to help.

He made his way down a few levels of chairs and kneeled in front of where a young woman was crying in pain and clutching at a bullet wound in her stomach. From the placement and his own experience being shot countless times, Joe figured she should be alright as long as she got medical attention. But he could still help. He looked around and grabbed a zippered hoodie from a nearby chair and pressed the bulk of it against the wound, then used the sleeves to tie it in place and hopefully keep some pressure over it.

He then lifted her up and carried her down to the desk next to the podium and set her down where she could easily be reached, hoping that the shooters weren’t planning on doubling back. He then rushed over to where the other one still alive, a boy likely in his first semester just out of high school who was holding a gunshot wound through his right shoulder just below the collarbone. He was lucky for the placement as it could have very easily been an inch in a few directions and have been much more serious of an injury. He wasn’t out of danger but he should still have time to get medical attention and might be saved.

Joe had to rush around a few chairs to grab three jackets and hoodies, one each to press against the wounds as the bullet had gone straight through, and the third to tie them in place. Once he’d patched up the students as best he could and had moved the boy next to the young girl, he pulled out his phone and dialed the emergency number, actually having to take a moment to remember what the emergency number was for the country he was in. He reported his location and the two injured and then hung up before they could ask any questions. There had likely already been multiple calls made and so it wasn’t like he was having to give the initial report of the shooting. And they tried not to be the ones to call emergency services as they knew those were often recorded.

He jogged back up to where he’d dropped his gun and he recovered it, checking the clip and then he headed for the door, listening for where the gunshots were and then turning to head toward the closest ones. He could pick up the sound of three guns, two in one direction and one in the other further away so he headed towards the two, thinking they sounded like they were from the same room or at least close to each other.

The halls had plenty of students running in a panic, mostly in the opposite direction Joe was heading but there were still some that were truly taken with panic and they were just running without a destination in mind. He was moving close to the wall and switched his gun to the left hand so he could hold it low and close to his side so it wasn’t as visible, not wanting people to see it and panic, thinking he was a shooter.

He looked into each room he passed, each one holding a few bodies and he was being taken with equal parts anger and grief over how many lives had been lost to this already.

He hated this.

He wiped at his eyes, clearing away the tears that had formed quickly. That didn’t happen often, him being taken by the grief of loss while still in the middle of the fight but this was difficult to see. Either way, he would continue to be useless if he focused on the grief now. He could mourn later with Nicky holding him and reminding him that nothing about their lives ensured they could save everyone.

He would believe Nicky when he said it.

He turned a corner and nearly ran into Nile, his sister standing just outside one of the classrooms with her gun drawn, likely having been about to enter when Joe arrived.

She looked down his front, to the blood covering his neck and shirt as well as what was covering his hands and then she looked back up to his face and gave him a questioning look.

“I got between them and the other students,” he explained. “Ready?” He nodded toward the room, where he heard two more gunshots.

“Yeah, ready,” she said, her voice even and she was obviously hurting like he was at the innocent lives lost. “Nicky called a little while ago and said he’s got the last one. We’re meeting Andy at the West exit once we’re ready to leave.”

“Then let’s take care of this,” he declared and then tucked in behind Nile in familiar formation.

She led the way into the room aiming to the left toward the majority of the room, Joe a step behind and covering the right. He saw one of the shooters about halfway up the room, standing over someone and about to fire. Joe got his own shot off before that could happen and his round hit the shooter right in the back of the skull and he dropped forward. He heard the shot from Nile and he stepped around her while continuing to scan the room, catching another young man fall out of sight behind a desk. Nile moved up the room as Joe crossed the front, checking to make sure that there was no other shooters even as a few remaining students who’d been ducking low in fear jumped up to run out of the room.

“Clear,” Nile called from the back of the room.

Joe checked around the desks before responding, “Clear.”

He then checked around the bodies of the victims, looking for anyone with injuries he could treat rather than being bodies. He paused at the shooter, giving him a disdainful look before moving on.

“This one was already shot. That your handiwork?” Nile asked.

“Once or twice?” he asked as he determined there were no survivors in this room.

“Once, arm.”

“Yeah, that was me. Make sure you tell Nicky you got him. He’ll be asking.” When he noticed Nile giving him a curious look, he gestured to the blood on his neck and clothes and she gave an understanding nod.

Her phone gave a soft ding of a notification and she pulled it out of her pocket and looked briefly at the screen. “Nicky says he got the last one and police are on the scene. We leave now and we can blend in with other students running out.” Joe nodded and they made their way out of the room and toward the West exit.

Joe ducked into the classroom he’d been shot in to grab his bag. He returned his gun to his bag and then zipped his jacket up to cover as much blood as he could. He would gain less attention if people didn’t think he shouldn’t be walking because he had so much blood on him.

They made it to the door and outside without incident, blending in with everyone else running out as expected and then headed straight for the car Andy was waiting in, the cops on the scene not organized enough yet to really pay them much attention. Nicky came out a minute later and Andy drove them off and to their safe house about an hour away.

Once at the safe house, Andy giving the report over the phone to Copley about what had happened, Joe went to the bathroom, intending to shower.

He got as far as taking his ruined shirt off and then he just stood in the bathroom, only seeing the faces of the people who he’d failed to save, who had died because he wasn’t fast enough to make sure those shooters died before getting a single shot off.

Nicky entered the bathroom Joe couldn’t say after how long. He didn’t knock, just walked in, closing and locking the door behind him, and then he stood right behind Joe and wrapped his arms around Joe’s waist, leaning against Joe and pressing his forehead against the back of Joe’s neck just below his hairline.

“The numbers are going to be high,” Nicky said in a quiet voice, sad himself for the loss of life. “They didn’t spend a lot of time in any one room. If there were no easy shots, they moved on. There were seven total and they were all well-armed.”

“Did we even make a difference?” Joe asked, settling his hands on Nicky’s arms.

“Yes. You know as well as I do how much longer it would have taken for the police to get all of them. Many more would have died if we hadn’t been there.” One of Nicky’s hands trailed up Joe’s chest and then rested against his pulse where the bullet had hit him. “This saved someone. I know it.”

Joe didn’t cry now but he knew it would happen in the next few days, likely as he followed the news of the shooting, heard numbers and names and eyewitness interviews. This wasn’t the kind of mission that just moved to the back of their mind once it was over with. It would be in the front of their mind for some time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
